There were few signs in warmups prior to Thursday night’s matchup between Summit and Caldera that Pearson Carmichael would once again eclipse 40 points.

In fact, the Storm’s Carmichael thought the opposite.

“I air-balled a couple of shots during warmups, I was thinking it was game over,” said the Boise State basketball signee.

“Then missed an alley-oop and I was like, ‘uh-oh.’”

“Uh-oh” was right, just not for Carmichael or the Summit boys basketball team in its 79-66 win over Caldera.

Once the ball was tipped between the Wolfpack (10-10, 5-5 IMC) and the Storm (15-4, 10-0) in the second-round finale of Intermountain Conference play, Carmichael’s shots began falling at a rapid clip.

He started by knocking down 3s on three consecutive possessions, and that was just a sample of what would come during the 32-minute game.

“The hoop just got bigger and bigger and bigger,” Carmichael said.

In total, Carmichael set a new career high and broke the school scoring record for the third time this season with 45 points.

He drilled seven shots from behind the arc, he attacked the basket, threw down dunks and — proving that seemingly everything he threw at the hoop fell in — sank a ¾-court buzzer-beater at the end of the first quarter.

“All thanks to my teammates and coaches,” Carmichael said. “They believe in me to just let it fly.”

In addition, he grabbed 14 rebounds and blocked a handful of shots.

“When Pearson is playing at that level, our ceiling of how good our team can be is pretty darn high,” Summit coach Jon Frazier said.

But nights like Thursday — or the 44-point game against Liberty at the Les Schwab Invitational, or the 42-point game against Grant on Dec. 19 — are a reminder that players like Carmichael rarely come through Central Oregon.

“You kind of start to take it for granted at times,” Frazier said. “Hopefully our community recognizes what they are seeing and take advantage of seeing him the next couple of weeks.”

The Storm needed this type of performance to take down the Wolfpack, which went blow-for-blow in the first half. The Wolfpack had four scorers reach double figures. As a team, they hit 10 3s. Going into halftime, the Wolfpack trailed 41-35.

Junior Miles Macomber led the Wolfpack with 26 points. Senior Trace Benner recorded yet another double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Junior Jack Bents finished with 11, and junior Aiden Cruz had 10.

It wasn’t until the third quarter that Summit was able to build and sustain a double-digit lead, turning a six-point halftime lead into 16 going into the final eight minutes.

“They shot the heck out of the ball,” Frazier said. “We knew going in that their guards are explosive and if you give them any space they are going to shoot the ball well. Miles was fantastic all night, he was difficult for us to defend. Luckily for us we went on a run in the third quarter. It took a lot of effort from us to get there.”

Summit senior Collin Moore pitched in 10 points. Senior Paxon Kettering finished with nine. Seniors Charlie Crowell and Mac Bledsoe each had six points in the win.

The next couple of weeks could be a special time for the Storm. Summit holds a three-game lead in the IMC, needing two more wins to clinch the conference title. The Storm has won all 10 of the games in 2024 — all by double digits — and are positioned to hold one of the top seeds when the playoffs start on March 1.

The Storm relied on a challenging nonleague schedule to prepare for IMC play. Summit played five of the top 10 teams in the 6A rankings — as of Friday afternoon — and 3A powerhouse Cascade Christian.

While the Storm won just two of those six games — two losses coming on buzzer-beaters — the nonleague schedule should pay dividends once the postseason starts.

“We learned how hard we have to play,” Carmichael said. “We know that no matter what we can win. All those mistakes that we were making then, we aren’t making. We can step on the court and trust everybody because of the schedule we played.”

The final round of IMC play begins next week. Summit hosts Ridgeview, while Caldera hosts Bend High on Monday. Both games begin at 7 p.m.